What is a silent number and how do you get one?

Who Called Australia editorial team · Updated: 31/08/2026

A silent number(an unlisted number) stays out of public phone directories and directory assistance. For people leaving abusive relationships, frontline workers, judges, police — or anyone who just dislikes cold calls — it's a basic privacy tool. Here's what it does and doesn't hide, what it costs (a story in itself), and how it fits with the other privacy switches.

What a silent line actually does

Your provider marks the service unlisted: it won't appear in the White Pages or be given out by directory assistance, and it's excluded from the public data marketers licence. That's the whole mechanism — useful, but narrow. Your number still exists in the numbering space (this site's register data, for the record, contains only carrier range allocations — never subscriber names, listed or silent), and everyone you've ever given the number to still has it, along with every form you typed it into.

The fee saga

For decades, Australians paid a monthly fee — most visibly Telstra's roughly $3 a month — for the privilege of not being listed, a charge consumer groups attacked for years as a privacy tax that hit vulnerable people hardest. Under that sustained pressure, Telstra dropped the fee in 2020, and free silent lines became the market norm. If a provider still quotes a monthly charge, push back — and anyone with a safety-related need should say so explicitly, as waivers for at-risk customers predate the general change.

What it won't stop

• Random-dialled scam calls: autodiallers walk through number ranges; they never consult a directory. The scam playbook applies, silent or not.
• Lawful telemarketing from consent you gave: that runs on the lists you've joined, not the phone book. The Do Not Call Register is the tool for that layer.
• Data leaks: every organisation holding your number is a potential source. A silent line doesn't reach into third-party databases.

The complete privacy stack

Think of it as four independent switches: a silent number (out of directories), the Do Not Call Register (lawful telemarketing), caller ID blocking with 1831 or a line setting (your number hidden when calling out), and form discipline — the cheapest and most effective of all: every competition entry and loyalty signup is a phone-number sale waiting to happen. People with acute safety concerns should also ask their provider about additional safeguards and, where relevant, involve police — providers have established processes for at-risk customers.